#Pathfinder movie part 2 professional#
It was deployed to Borneo during the Borneo Confrontation where it was used provide reinforcement to the SAS and its professional performance resulted in the formation of G Sqn of that regiment in 1966. The Company deployed on a wide variety of operations between 19. To provide this formation with a pathfinder capacity the Guards Independent Parachute Company was formed in 1948 on the disbandment of Composite Guards Parachute Battalion. Post war the Regular Army's parachute force was reduced to the 16th Parachute Brigade. The 22nd Independent Parachute Company was sent with the 5th Parachute Brigade, part of the 6th Airborne Division but temporarily detached, to the Far East in mid-1945, remaining there until disbanded in July 1946. The company then participated in Operation Varsity, the airborne component of Operation Plunder, the British assault crossing of the Rhine in late March 1945 and then the subsequent Western Allied invasion of Germany. The company, together with the rest of the division, remained in Normandy, acting as standard line infantry, until the 6th Airborne Division advanced to the River Seine in August, returning to England in September but was sent to Belgium in December, due to the German Ardennes offensive, again fighting as standard infantrymen. The 22nd Independent Parachute Company were the lead elements of the 6th Airborne Division's drop into Normandy as part of Operation Tonga in the early hours of D-Day, 6 June 1944. Paratroopers of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company with their toy mascot 'Pegasus' at RAF Harwell, Berkshire, preparing for Operation Tonga the initial airborne element of Overlord, 5 June 1944. It was then attached to the 6th Airborne Division serving in Mandate Palestine where it was still serving in September 1946, when it was disbanded. Towards the end of the war the 21st Independent Parachute Company went with the 1st Airborne Division as part of Operation Doomsday to disarm the German forces in Norway between May and October 1945.
The company did not see any further action in the war. After marking the DZs and LZs the company was trapped with the rest of the division in the Oosterbeek Perimeter, suffering heavy casualties in what is now known as the Battle of Arnhem. Held in reserve and unused for the Allied Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, the company took part in Operation Market Garden, landing at the Dutch town of Arnhem on the night of 17 September 1944. The company, with most of the rest of the 1st Airborne Division, after fighting briefly in the early stages of the Italian Campaign, returned to the United Kingdom in December 1943, but left an independent platoon behind in Italy to work with the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade Group. They then took part in Operation Slapstick, part of the Allied invasion of Italy, landing by sea at Taranto on 9 September. Paratroopers of 3 Platoon, 21st Independent Parachute Company, assemble at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire in preparation for Operation Market Garden, September 1944.ĭuring the Allied invasion of Sicily (codenamed 'Operation Husky') the 21st Independent Parachute Company parachuted ahead of the main force during Operation Fustian to capture the Primosole Bridge on the night of 13/14 July 1943. The 22nd Independent Parachute Company was raised in May 1943 and was part of the 6th Airborne Division, under the command of Major General Richard "Windy" Gale. The 21st Independent Parachute Company was formed in June 1942 and became part of the 1st Airborne Division, then commanded by Major General Frederick "Boy" Browning, considered to be the father of the British Army's airborne forces. The units were formed into two companies to work with the two British airborne divisions created during the war, the 1st and 6th.
Their tasks were to mark the drop zones (DZ) or landing zones (LZ), set up radio beacons as a guide for the aircraft carrying the main force and to clear and protect the area as the main force arrived. During the Second World War small groups of parachute soldiers were formed into pathfinder units, to parachute ahead of the main force.
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